ID thief gets 14 years

A British man charged with taking part in the world's largest ever identity theft scam has been sentenced to 14 years in prison in the US.

Philip Cummings, 35, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and fraud in September 2004. He was sentenced yesterday in a New York courtroom and will serve his sentence in the US where he had worked as a computer helpdesk employee.

The sentence was the maximum available to the judge after Cummings' scam victimised 30,000 people between 1999 and 2000, causing losses of at least $2.7m.

Cummings was charged with selling-on passwords and codes while working for Long Island-based Teledata Communications, a company which provided access to credit databases.

Another member of the operation was sentenced to more than three years in prison in June 2004. According to reports, investigations into other members of the scam are ongoing.